Mary, preeminent exemplar of the New Woman

34. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin must also pay close attention to
certain findings of the human sciences. This will help to eliminate
one of the causes of the difficulties experienced in devotion to
the Mother of the Lord, namely, the discrepancy existing between
some aspects of this devotion and modern anthropological
discoveries and the profound changes which have occurred in the
psycho-sociological field in which modern man lives and works. The
picture of the Blessed Virgin presented in a certain type of
devotional literature cannot easily be reconciled with today's
life-style, especially the way women live today. In the home,
woman's equality and co-responsibility with man in the running of
the family are being justly recognized by laws and the evolution of
customs. In the sphere of politics women have in many countries
gained a position in public life equal to that of men. In the
social field women are at work in a whole range of different
employments, getting further away every day from the restricted
surroundings of the home. In the cultural field new possibilities
are opening up for women in scientific research and intellectual
activities.

In consequence of these phenomena some people are becoming
disenchanted with devotion to the Blessed Virgin and finding it
difficult to take as an example Mary of Nazareth because the
horizons of her life, so they say, seem rather restricted in
comparison with the vast spheres of activity open to mankind today.
In this regard we exhort theologians, those responsible for the
local Christian communities and the faithful themselves to examine
these difficulties with due care. At the same time we wish to take
the opportunity of offering our own contribution to their solution
by making a few observations.

35. First, the Virgin Mary has always been proposed to the faithful
by the Church as an example to be imitated, not precisely in the
type of life she led, and much less for the socio-cultural
background in which she lived and which today scarcely exists
anywhere. She is held up as an example to the faithful rather for
the way in which, in her own particular life, she fully and
responsibly accepted the will of God (cf. Lk. 1:38), because she
heard the word God and acted on it, and because charity and a
spirit of service were the driving force of her actions. She is
worthy o imitation because she was the first and the most perfect
of Christ's disciples. All of this has a permanent and universal
exemplary value.

36. Secondly, we would like to point out that the difficulties
alluded to above are closely related to certain aspects of the
image of Mary found in popular writings. They are not connected
with the Gospel image of Mary nor with the doctrinal data which
have been made explicit through a slow and conscientious process of
drawing from Revelation. I should be considered quite normal for
succeeding generations of Christians in differing socio-cultural
contexts to have expressed their sentiments about the Mother of
Jesus in a way and manner which reflected their own age. In
contemplating Mary and her mission these different generations of
Christians, looking on her as the New Woman and perfect Christian,
found in her as a virgin, wife and mother the outstanding type of
womanhood and pre-eminent exemplar of life lived in accordance with
the Gospels and summing up the most characteristic situations in
the life of a woman. When the Church considers the long history of
Marian devotion she rejoices at the continuity of the element of
cult which it shows, but she does not bind herself to any
particular expression of an individual cultural epoch or to the
particular anthropological ideas underlying such expressions. The
Church understands that certain outward religious expressions,
while perfectly valid in themselves, may be less suitable to men
and women of different ages and cultures.

37. Finally, we wish to point out that our own time, no less than
former times, is called upon to verify its knowledge of reality
with the word of God, and, keeping to the matter at present under
consideration, to compare its anthropological ideas and the
problems springing therefrom with the figure of the Virgin Mary as
presented by the Gospel. The reading of the divine Scriptures,
carried out under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and with the
discoveries of the human sciences and the present situations in the
world today being taken into account, will help us to see how Mary
can be considered a mirror of the expectations of the men and women
of our time. Thus, the modern woman, anxious to participate with
decision-making power in the affairs of the community, will
contemplate with intimate joy Mary who, taken into dialogue with
God, gives her active and responsible consent,[102] not to the
solution of a contingent problem, but to that "event of world
importance," as the Incarnation of the Word has been rightly
called.[103] The modern woman will appreciate that Mary's choice of
the state of virginity, which in God's plan prepared her for the
mystery of the Incarnation, was not a rejection of any of the
values of the married state but a courageous choice which was made
in order to consecrate herself totally to the love of God. The
modern woman will note with pleasant surprise that Mary of
Nazareth, while completely devoted to the will of God, was far from
being a timidly submissive woman or one whose piety was repellent
to others; on the contrary, she was a woman who did n t hesitate to
proclaim that God vindicates the humble and the oppressed, and
removes the powerful people of this world from their privileged
positions (cf. Lk. 1:51-53). The modern woman will recognize in
Mary, who "stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord,"[104]
a woman of strength, who experienced poverty and suffering, flight
and exile (cf. Mt. 2:13-23). These are situations that cannot
escape the attention of those who wish to support, with the Gospel
spirit, he liberating energies of man and of society. And Mary will
appear not as a Mother exclusively concerned with er own divine
Son, but rather as a woman whose action helped to strengthen the
apostolic community's faith in Christ (cf. Jn. 2:1-12), and whose
maternal role was extended and became universal on Calvary.[105]
These are but examples, but examples which show clearly that the
figure of the Blessed Virgin does not disillusion any of the
profound expectations of the men and women of our time but offers
them the perfect model of the disciple of the Lord: the disciple
who builds up the earthly and temporal city while being a diligent
pilgrim towards the heavenly and eternal city; the disciple who
works for that justice which sets free the oppressed and for that
charity which assists the needy; but above all, the disciple who is
the active witness of that love which builds up Christ in people's
hearts.